Cartoons aren’t just for kids, and gaining an education from a television show isn’t just a line parents of rowdy children use when they want some peace and quiet.

We are constantly told that television shows and movies are full of violence, easy laughs, sexual connotations, and lacking in facts and life lessons. And while settling in for an evening of mind numbing viewing might be our intention, the subconscious has other ideas.

We subconsciously take in so much knowledge from the silver screen, and the big screen, we shouldn’t be so quick to agree with the negative stereotyping. While learning from watching movies won’t ever rival gaining an education from school, there are plenty of handy facts and figures I have learnt throughout my TV watching days.

Actor Jim Carey taught me a simple way to remember how to spell ‘beautiful’, in Bruce Almighty. The unlikely hero from Slumdog Millionaire taught me who invented the revolver. And the hypnotic James Franco as mountaineer Aron Ralston taught me how to amputate my own arm, if ever necessary, in 127 Hours.

In my house not a day goes by when a The Simpsons reference is not used, whether it be a fumble in speech resulting in the Ralph Wiggum classic, ‘me fail English? That’s unpossible’ or an exclamation of an exceptionally good day with the timeless, ‘everything is coming up Milhouse!’

While The Simpsons is a hilarious way to pass the time for half an hour, or an entire day if Fox have a marathon, it has also taught me more about American history than Mercy College (or Catholic Regional College as it was called back when I was there and dinosaurs roamed the earth) ever did.

Inadvertently shows like The Simpsons can teach you things you didn’t mean to learn, because you were having so much fun laughing at Homer’s inability to understand politics or countless ‘Little Timmy’ videos.

We understand video sixty thousand times faster than text, faster even than imagery. So, while animations might seem childish and an easy way to tune out from reality, they are far more subliminally educational than you would originally think. Because who didn’t learn a thing or two from HR Pufnstuf, He Man (Masters of the Universe), or the classic Play School.